


Severus Snape and the Battle of Hogwarts

by lazydazy



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: AU Deathly Hallows, Drama, Fanfic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-09
Updated: 2013-04-09
Packaged: 2017-12-08 00:31:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 20,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/754877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lazydazy/pseuds/lazydazy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Severus Snape is Headmaster of Hogwarts, Death Eater, estranged member of the Order of the Phoenix, long-suffering victim of Dumbledore’s Army and battling against all the odds to ensure the Dark Lord’s defeat.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

He was sat in a chair that did not belong to him, in a position that had been thrust upon him against his wanting and in a manner he could barely stomach, with a scowl on his face blacker than the moonless night sky. The mahogany desk in front of him was covered with scrolls and parchments but he was not even attempting to concentrate on their content. The quill had long been placed back in its holder and he swivelled his chair round to glare out the window, his gaze sweeping over the sleeping portraits and following the forest to the horizon.

The weight of his thoughts were starting to choke him and he clawed at the buttons around his neck, pulling his frock coat open to reveal the crisp white shirt he wore beneath. Opening the top few buttons he then visibly relaxed and laced his hands together, elbows resting on the arms of the chair, he tried again to formulate a plan of action.

It was a very little known fact that Albus Dumbledore had duplicated the Sword of Gryffindor. It was even less widely known that the copy, hanging in the Headmaster’s office in the place of the original, was just that. A copy, devoid of any magical ability. Known only to himself and the one other person that had ever truly known his allegiance, the real sword was kept safely hidden until such a time as he could get it to that dratted Potter boy. Herein lay the problem. Here was the reason for the scowl. Yet another task lay before him, seemingly impossible and yet imperative that it be achieved without anyone knowing it to be him.

The main obstacle he had was his complete lack of contact with the Order. His actions, as he had known that they would, had turned every last one of them against him. His glare turned into a sneer directed at the portraiture of Albus Dumbledore hanging on the wall next to the window, but instead of it showing the former headmaster in all his glory, his eyes actually landed upon a painting of a sleeping wizard who’s glasses were falling off his usually twinkling eyes and whose book was slipping out of his relaxed hands. 

Snape snorted rather ungainly as he thought _“Typical for the old man to be sleeping on the job. Couldn’t be awake and giving me some decent help, could he? Oh no, just had to make me look so much worse and leave absolutely no avenue of help open.” ___

__It did, however, do wonders for his disguise and his position within the Death Eaters. It also meant he had been made Headmaster of Hogwarts so he was able to keep the children as safe as he could without it being so obvious that he was found out. A thin rope to be walking. He had, on the Dark Lord’s orders, had to employ a couple of Death Eaters as teachers, but there were far worse horrors than that which the Carrows could inflict. It tore at his very being that he had to allow them into the school and give them access to the students. His only hope was that the other teachers would be sensible enough to intervene if things started to get out of hand as he knew he could not rely on the children to behave. Neville Longbottom and his followers were a prime example of that._ _

__His scowl deepened with this line of thought. He may not portray himself as a decent man but the hurt, pain and anguish being caused by his hand, however indirectly, made him wish for better things. It made him wish that he had been a better child. Better able to choose the right path and do the right thing before his words tore his own heart out and ripped it to shreds. However, long years of behaving this way and ensuring his solitude had taught him that dwelling on these kinds of thoughts was not going to get him anywhere. He had his role to play and certain jobs to do. He could only hope that completing them and finally reaching the end would bring about the downfall of the Dark Lord; absolving him of his childhoods wrong doings if not those that he had been forced to commit since._ _

__With that faint, hope burning within him he abruptly stood up from his chair, summoned his teaching robes and swept out of the office. There were only two cures for a wandering mind that could find no answers. One was prowling the corridors and intimidating small children (a task which had started to lose its joy now that the students had more to be afraid of with the Carrows in residence) and the other was brewing. He had decided to attempt both in his dire need to quiet his mind and bring about the concentration that would help Merlin to inspire him with a glimpse of the future and what it was he was actually supposed to _do.__ _

____There was nothing like killing two birds with one stone._ _ _ _

____He reached the bottom of the spiral staircase and the Gargoyle jumped aside for him with no complaint. He stood for a moment in the corridor allowing his eyes to adjust to the dim light that was filtering in from the windows and flickering across the floor from the sconces. The Headmasters office had been dimly lit by candlelight, but he had not felt the need to illuminate his path down the spiral staircase therefore emerging into the corridor had temporarily blinded him. Not being one to show weakness of any kind he simply waited for his eyes to adjust before sweeping down the corridor in the direction of the Great Hall._ _ _ _

____He was slightly disappointed to find no trace of magic being used to cloak any of the alcoves on his way, meaning that none of the older students were attempting to disguise themselves and there were no obvious signs of the younger children being out and about either. As he reached the entrance hall he glanced over to the House Hourglasses and the Slytherin in him swelled with pride at how full the Slytherin Hourglass was. The Gryffindor Hourglass was very nearly empty and he wondered, fleetingly, whether it was possible for an hourglass to show minus figures._ _ _ _

____It was probably a good thing that there were no students out of bounds as he made his way down into the depths of the Castle to his personal quarters in the dungeon. He had replaced his teaching robes but neglected to re-fasten his frock coat and shirt and no matter how menacing he could have been, it would have been that which would have frightened the children most; seeing him in an almost human light rather than his usual closed garb of bat of the dungeon._ _ _ _

____He had refused to move his things into the Headmasters rooms that were situated off the Head’s office, using the excuse that he needed to remain close to his personal potions laboratory. Whereas really it was because moving into Dumbledore’s rooms put a more official end to his life and it was bad enough that he had been responsible for that without tarnishing the Heads' living quarters._ _ _ _

____He reached the alcove that gave access to his laboratory, took his wand out and in one swift movement with a barely audible incantation had disabled the wards. He entered the room through a door concealed by a large wall hanging of Demillious the Disdainful. Throwing up the wards behind him so that he would be warned if anyone attempted to reach him, he removed his teaching robes and crossed the room to the workbench where his current experiment sat patiently waiting under stasis in his cauldron._ _ _ _

____He removed the stasis charm, lit the fire under the cauldron to ensure that the potion was only gently bubbling and studied it critically for a moment. He had one more item to add before it was ready for testing and according to his notes it would need 4 anti-clockwise stirs with a silver rod to be complete. He pulled open the draw of the workbench and removed a quill, ink and his notes. Turning to the last page he scribbled down the date and wrote that he was about to add the final ingredient. He then re-read the previous entry’s notes, nodded to himself as he was satisfied with the actions required and went to his store cupboard to obtain the items required._ _ _ _

____Popping open the vial of liquid in his left hand he carefully added three drops to the experiment, recapped the vial and picked up the silver rod. He placed it into the cauldron at the point opposite to him and proceeded to methodically stir in an anti-clockwise direction at a steady pace, stopping when he had completed four rounds of the cauldron. He then removed the rod, taking care not to spill any liquid on the worktop and extinguished the fire beneath. It would not take long for the potion to cool and then he would be ready to test it to see if this was the one._ _ _ _

____He pulled out the stool from beneath the workbench and settled down with his paperwork and started carefully noting down what he had done, what effects he had seen as he had done so, as well as those that it was showing now it was completed. This systematic and meticulous part of his potion experimentation served two purposes. It helped order his thoughts and document all processes and outcomes so that he didn’t unnecessarily duplicate an ineffective potion and it served to pass the time between extinguishing the flame beneath the cauldron and allowing the potion to cool naturally. (He had already determined that using a cooling charm messed with the substance of the potion and was not worth the risk until he had created a working potion). Once he had the working potion, then he would be able to tinker with things such as a quicker cool down process or nicer taste. Not that he had been stupid enough to test it on himself yet._ _ _ _

____Putting his notes to one side he siphoned the potion into an empty vial, labelled the vial ‘Exp.N.A.No28’ and cleared away the worktop so that all that was left were his notes neatly stacked at one end and two potion vials in front of him. Then he went to one of his shelves and uncovered a cage that contained mice. Opening the door he carefully reached in and picked one of the mice up, no sound reached his ears until the little mite had cleared the silencing charm he had placed around the cage, then his little protesting squeaks seemed to echo around the room as though he realised what his fate was. Snape had no problem ignoring the creatures peeping and simply placed the mouse on his worktop, casting a charm to keep it in the area whilst still allowing it some room to roam. Picking up the first of the two vials, labelled ‘Nagini Venom’, he uncorked it, placed the cork to one side and then re-captured the mouse. As expected, the little creature was most helpful by opening its little mouth wide to squeak in protest, only to find that Snape, being the Slytherin that he was, had used that moment to place one drop of the venom in its mouth. He then set the mouse back down, re-corked the vial whilst not taking his eyes off the rodent and then picked up the other vial. He swiftly uncorked this one as the mouse tottered and fell to one side its little mouth open in shock and its eyes starting to glaze over. Snape picked the mouse up again, placed one drop of the potion directly to the back of its throat, and gently rubbed his throat to ensure digestion. He then placed the mouse back down and proceeded to write more notes whilst watching to see what would happen._ _ _ _

____As he watched, the little mouse’s erratic breathing started to settle and its heart rate steadied. The mouse was rapidly opening and closing its mouth so he went to the cage and removed the water bottle and held it just in reach of its mouth so that it was able to drink greedily. Once it had had its fill, he returned the bottle to the cage and checked the mouse that was now fast asleep breathing calmly, heart rate slowed but beating steadily. Experiment Nagini Antidote Number 28 was a success! If anyone had been there to see it, they would have seen triumph visibly sparkling in Snape’s eyes._ _ _ _


	2. Chapter Two

The night had seemed to be everlasting to Ginny, but the weak light of the early autumn morning had finally reached above the forest and the sun was fighting its way up into the sky so that its rays were finally starting to seep through the cracks in the curtains at her dormitory window. Her mother had made her promise that she would not leave her shared sleeping quarters in Gryffindor Tower until it was light, but with all the changes that had happened and Voldemort gaining hold of the Ministry, she was struggling to see why she should keep that promise. 

She was worried about her family, the members of the Order of the Phoenix, her friends at school and those on the run. She was most worried about her brother Ron, Hermione and Harry who were who knew where doing who knew what. That was what made her worry about them more than anyone else. She had some form of contact with everyone, even if it was minimal and they could not allude to anything important. Nevertheless, it was still letters, short notes or contact via word of mouth that proved they were ok. With Harry, Ron and Hermione she had nothing. Every day she scoured the Daily Prophet to see what lies were being printed and then she would avidly read the Quibbler, her heart in her mouth, knowing that Luna’s father was the only one out there printing the truth and that the truth could mean reading of a loved one’s disappearance, or worse, their death.

Being at school, sitting around doing nothing whilst others fought against You-Know-Who’s dark regime, was making her crazy. She felt as if she was useless and she did not want to feel that way. She was in school, but that did not have to mean not being part of the fight. With an idea starting to form, she threw her bedclothes back and raced into the shared bathroom with such an urgency that she accidently slammed the door half waking one of her roommates who murmured something mostly incoherent about clowns and went back to sleep. It was, after all, before six o’clock in the morning. 

Ginny jumped in the shower and got herself dressed in record time. Then she rummaged in her trunk to find what would help her with her idea. Once she found what she was looking for she grabbed her bag and headed out to the common room to start properly forming her idea. Some of Hermione’s organisational skills seemed to have rubbed off on her. Anyway, this way she would feel less of a spare part and more like she was actually doing something. Plus, she wanted to catch Neville as he got up. He was going to be an integral part of her plan.

Entering the empty common room Ginny was happy to see that the House Elves had already been in and tidied up and there was a fresh fire in the grate. Even though it was not yet winter, the Gryffindor Tower could be quite cold so Ginny settled down in the armchair closest to the fire which faced the entrance to all the dormitories and pulled out some spare parchment, quill, ink and her copy of Hogwarts, A History (because it was an excellent book for leaning on when you didn’t want to sit at a table). Then she wrote at the top of her piece of parchment: _Dumbledore’s Army._

It was not long before others in the Tower started to stir. The current atmosphere, the war they were living through, meant that no student in Gryffindor Tower was completely happy or at ease. All of them were affected whether they be pureblood, half-blood or muggle born. The muggle born’s were most affected by the new piece of legislation which meant that they should be able to prove an ancestry to a wizarding family, and if they could not they had to stand trial for stealing their magic from the wizarding community. Dean Thomas had already had to go into hiding. Ginny had been one of the ones to convince him to go. As much as they may have a history, they had split up on friendly terms and she could not stand to see any of her friends getting hurt by Voldemort’s Ministry changes. She had been quite forceful as she had told him that he needed to go into hiding. 

Following Harry, Ron and Hermione escaping the invasion at Bill and Fleur’s wedding, the carnage of the intrusion had given Ginny an idea of just what could happen to someone that the Death Eaters were hunting. It had been awful. One minute they were dancing on the dance floor, people were drinking, chatting, and generally feeling happy and relaxed. The next minute, the warning came in and then pandemonium broke out. 

Ginny had been dancing with Luna when the lynx patronus had landed in the midst of the wedding party. Her first thought had been for Harry. Then, as she turned this way and that trying to find him, masked figures had appeared on the dance floor and suddenly there were spells flying through the air and she was afraid for her family as well as her friends. She had ducked, and then grabbed Luna and they had run out of the tent only to find more masked figures surrounding them. Mr Lovegood then ran up to them and, taking hold of Luna’s hand to pull her towards him, had disapparated with a shout to leave quickly as the Death Eaters could not follow them all. 

The charms protecting her family home had broken and she had no idea what to do. This was her home. She had nowhere to disapparate to even if she had learnt how to do it. Panic had nearly taken over but she seized her wand and proceeded to block any spells headed her way as she attempted to find her family members, all the while praying to Merlin that Harry, Ron and Hermione had escaped. 

To this day, she was still unsure as to exactly what had happened once the Death Eaters had arrived. Nor could she really explain how her family had survived it. She supposed that their blood status had had a lot to do with it. But survive they had and her last good memory of Harry had been the kiss she had given him on his seventeenth birthday. She had no idea where he was, or what state he was in. She had no idea whether Ron and Hermione were ok either. But there was a way in which she believed that she, as well as any of the other students that wanted to, could help them. All she needed to do was speak to Neville and get the ball rolling.

As she had been sat in front of the fire waiting to accost Neville when he emerged from his dormitory, she had been writing a list of all the people that had been involved in Dumbledore’s Army when Harry had been teaching them the defensive spells that they would need to know when faced with Death Eaters and dementors and whatever else that You-Know-Who might throw at them. Next to this list she had started a column titled ‘Items to Use Against Them’ and beneath it had listed:

_New Recruits  
Defence lessons  
Grafitti – scaremongering?  
Show loyalty to Dumbledore / Hogwarts_

Then beneath both lists and in capitals with many lines underlining it she had written _‘SWORD OF GRYFFINDOR’._

Her ideas needed to have more brains looking at them and that was why she was waiting for Neville. She was not kept waiting much longer and as Neville entered the common room she tried to call him over only to find croaking to be her voice of the moment, probably due to lack of use and not having had a drink yet that morning.

“Oh! Hi Ginny,” Neville said, her croak having notified him to her presence, “You ok?”

“Hi Neville, I’m ok, better than ok, I’ve got an idea and I need your help,” She replied as Neville made his way over to her. 

He sat down in the chair next to hers as she handed him the piece of parchment she had been working on and her piece de resistance – the coin they had each been given by Hermione. Her eyes shone with barely contained excitement as Neville looked over the list.

“Are you thinking what I think you’re thinking?” Asked Neville.

“We need to re-instate Dumbledore’s Army, revolution from within. Get the old recruits back on board, get new recruits and fight against this regime ourselves. We can’t just sit here doing nothing!” she gushed in a whisper, “I think we need the sword of Gryffindor to help Harry defeat You-Know-Who! Are you in?”

It did not take long for Neville to answer. He had been feeling just as much a spare, useless part as Ginny had. 

“I’m in!” he exclaimed as he produced his coin from his pocket. He had been carrying it around in case anyone used theirs. “We can see who we can talk to throughout the day. The sooner we get started the better. I think we need to get Luna on board as she can rally the Ravenclaws, we’ve got Gryffindor covered so we’ll need to get Ernie Macmillan on board to rally the Hufflepuffs and I’m guessing we can rule out any involvement from Slytherin.” 

“Yeah, we don’t want to let any of them in on it as they’d run straight off to their precious Snape or Carrows,” Replied Ginny with quite a lot of venom for her.

“Why do you think Harry will need the sword?” Neville queried as he had thought it an odd thing for her to have put on the list and could not work out himself why she thought that Harry might need it.

“I’m not one hundred percent certain he will need it,” replied Ginny, “but I think he might. I’ll explain more once we’ve got Ernie and Luna involved, gives me a chance to organise my thoughts so that I can explain properly.”

“Come on then,” said Neville, “let’s get to breakfast and see if we can’t catch Ernie and Luna before too many people notice what we’re trying to do.”

Ginny nodded and took the parchment off Neville casting a disillusionment charm on it to make it look like her class notes; much to Neville’s approval; and then stuffed everything back into her bag. She then led the way out of the portrait hole and they made their way down to the Great Hall together. 

Their confident stance faltered somewhat when they entered the Great Hall, at this early hour, only to find that Snape was already seated in Dumbledore’s seat at the Head Table. That scuppered their plans a little bit. That man saw everything that went on in this school. He seemed to have happily (if you could describe him that way) stepped into the Headmasters shoes and now, on top of his ability to suddenly appear just when you really didn’t want him to, had seemed to have gained Dumbledore’s knack of knowing everything. There was no chance that they would be able to approach either the Hufflepuff table or the Ravenclaw table without creating suspicion. 

Neville went straight to the Gryffindor table and sat in the seat closest to the main entrance, facing the Hufflepuff table. Following him, Ginny went and sat opposite so that she was facing the Ravenclaw table. Where they were positioned there was a small chance that they might be able to attract Luna or Ernie’s attention without seeming to do it deliberately. They both kept shooting sideways glances at the Head table until Snape caught Neville’s eye and Neville suddenly decided to look like he was trying to revise for his first lesson.

As they buttered their toast and attempted to eat a decent breakfast around the butterflies that had taken up residence in their stomach, the hall started to fill up with the other students. The near silence that had been present when they first entered the room dissipated with the chatter of the Slytherins and whispered conversations of the other students scattered about the four tables. Ginny had taken her coin out and was turning it over in one hand as she tried to think of a way of getting the others attention. At that moment, Luna entered the hall and made to walk past her. In a flash of inspiration, Ginny laid the coin next to her plate in full view of anyone walking past. The action received the desired result. 

Luna saw the coin and said, “Breakfast looks so much more interesting today, don’t you think?” as she walked past. 

Returning the coin to her pocket Ginny smiled at Neville. Objective one was complete. Now all they needed to do was make Ernie aware and then they could use the coins to arrange a meeting place where they would be able to share their idea and devise a plan of action. 

“Ernie is here,” Neville told Ginny, “I’m going to try and bump into him on the way out. Where do you think we should meet?”

“Hagrid’s hut,” Ginny replied firmly, “You can send the message as only you will know whether you’ve managed to tell Ernie or not and we should meet there straight after our last class. Hagrid will like the company.”

Neville nodded at the wisdom behind this and then scooped up all his things as Ernie got up to leave for his class.


	3. Chapter Three

Ginny didn’t have to wait long before her coin grew hot and she got a message through from Neville saying _‘Hag Hut On’ ___which meant that he’d managed to get the message across to Ernie and the meeting was on for that afternoon straight after lessons. It was only once she received this message that she realised although Luna had seen the coin and had known something was going on, she had not been told about the time or place or anything. Ginny spent the majority of her Transfiguration lesson worrying about this major glitch. She had thought she’d got it all down, started the ball rolling on a faultless plan and covered all bases, but obviously her inability to sleep had left her with an inability to spot this gaping flaw.

_With half an eye on her Transfiguration lesson and what she was supposed to be doing, the rest of her attention focused inwards at how to let Luna know what the message meant, what she was going to be suggesting later that day and how best to suggest it. So it was hardly surprising when the bang of her desk falling to the floor, from her vanishing the table leg instead of the goblet they had been given to practice on, made her jump and got her extra homework from Professor McGonagall for her carelessness. She was lucky that she was normally such a hard-working student else she may have received a detention that would have put the entire plan out of kilter – there would have been no point in the meeting if she had been rendered unable to attend as Neville only knew the half of her thoughts from the parchment she had shown him._

_Her worries regarding Luna were needless, however, as she bumped into her on her way to the library to grab a text that would help her gain some of the ground she had lost that lesson and complete her extra Transfiguration homework. She wanted to make sure that McGonagall would have no extra ammunition from her that could end up with a detention being given, so she was going to use a book other than their standard text to complete the assignment. She did not like letting her favourite teacher down, but being careless in class had helped to solve the problem that had been bothering her the whole lesson._

_As they passed each other Ginny quickly said “Meet us at Hagrid’s Hut straight after last class!” and kept hurrying on to the library as Alecto Carrow came around the corner and started bullying the nearest student under the pretence that they shouldn’t be loitering in the corridors when, in actual fact, the poor kid had only been walking from their class to the Great Hall for lunch. All Ginny could do was hope that she had said as much as necessary and that Luna understood her hurried comment enough to turn up later. She hurriedly found the book she needed took it to Madam Pince to check it out and then rushed to lunch before she got a detention for dawdling._

_The rest of the afternoon seemed to drag on as if someone had placed a time-turner on her. Everytime she went to check the time they were turning it back so that it seemed to never be any later on than the last time she looked. But even with it seeming to drag on like that, the end of her Herbology class did finally arrive. With no more classes and a couple of hours to spare before they needed to be in the Great Hall for dinner, she headed straight from the Greenhouse the class had been in for their lesson to Hagrid’s hut. Hoping fervently that he would be there and be glad of the visit._

_Reaching his hut, Ginny knocked on the door and was greeted by the booming barks of Fang the boarhound. Luckily Hagrid was in and he opened the door already trying to defend himself (for what, Ginny could only guess at) and started with surprise when he saw that it was Ginny at his door._

_“Oh, Ginny! Nice of yeh to visit bu’...” He trailed off as he saw the others. “An’ these three headin’ down here now are comin’ to visit too?” He finished rather incredulously as he had only ever really been visited by Harry, Ron and Hermione before._

_Ginny looked back out of the door before going all the way into the hut and saw Neville and Luna heading towards them being closely followed by Ernie._

_“Yes please, Hagrid,” she replied smiling sweetly at the half-giant as she went past him to seat herself at his table near the fire._

_He returned her smile with a suspicious look that turned into a smile as he dismissed their coming to see him as being anything more than just that. It did not take the others too long to get there and soon they were all sat round Hagrid’s table with steaming mugs of tea. Fortunately, he had not made any rock cakes that day so they did not have the dilemma of whether to eat one and break their teeth or not eat one and upset him. Once everyone was happily settled and the small talk was dwindling, Ginny decided it was time to get down to business._

_“We’re going to re-instate Dumbledore’s Army.” She stated. “With Death Eaters running the school and all the stuff that’s going on with the muggleborn registry, we need to be making a stance. We can’t just sit here and do nothing.”_

_She looked appealingly around the table at all her friends hoping that they would agree. The response from them all was positive, until Ginny looked at Hagrid._

_“I don’ think yeh should be doing tha’,” he said worriedly, “it’s too dangerous.”_

_Arguments broke out from all around him as all four students protested his response with different reasons why they could, and should, help with the war against You-Know-Who (although Luna’s statement of “There are lots of Wrackspurts surrounding Fang” was dismissed without comment as another random Luna-ism) and that they couldn’t just sit around doing nothing. Hagrid held his hands up in defence at the outburst._

_“Alrigh’! Alrigh’! Calm down!” he cried out over the top of them._

_They all settled down, most looking a bit sheepish at their outbursts but Luna looking more vacant than sheepish, and Hagrid relaxed a little._

_“Tha’s better. Now what d’yeh reckon yeh can do?” he asked._

_Taking the helm, Ginny replied, “I think we will be able to create an undercurrent of discontent that will cause havoc to the Death Eaters here and I think we should reclaim the sword of Gryffindor.”_

_She did not get to explain any further at that point as she was interrupted._

_“Steal the sword of Gryffindor? From the Headmasters Office? From right under the great big beaky nose of Snape – He Who Knows Everything?! Impossible! We’ll never manage it and what on Merlin’s Mound would we need to do that for anyway?” Ernie spluttered, nearly tripping over his words in order to get them all out so fast._

_“Well,” she began, “I’ve been thinking about all the things Harry has told us in the past. All the things that he’s been through when facing You-Know-Who. There have always been obstacles to overcome that aren’t just You-Know-Who himself, and it struck me that when he saved me from that diary I was stupid enough to write in he used the sword so if he needed it then, maybe he will need it again? I don’t know that he will need it, I just think that it might come in useful and even if it doesn’t or isn’t required then at least we’ve felt like we were doing something useful?”_

_She looked around at the others, suddenly unsure as to her great plan and its need for action. This meeting had supposed to be her talking them into doing it, but it was turning into her talking herself out of it._

_“It’s definitely a reasonable idea,” answered Neville to Ginny’s relief, “and it would mean that we’d be removing the sword from the Death Eater’s grasp so even if Harry doesn’t need it at least they wouldn’t be able to use it.”_

_With that response from Neville and Hagrid giving in to the inevitability that the students would go ahead and do it even if he did attempt to stop them and his thought that they would be better off if he tried to help or at least kept an eye on them, they were able to start working out a plan. They decided that the best thing to do would be to track Snape’s movements for one week, individually so as not to be obvious, and then regroup at Hagrid’s the same time the following week to see whether there was a routine to his movements which would then give them a decent start to their plan for the sword. Regrouping the same time the next week also meant that they would look more like a weekly group of friends visiting Hagrid for tea whereas if they met there at more frequent and random times they would be more likely to raise suspicion._

_With the plan for the sword set into action they turned to the act of recalling the original members of Dumbledore’s Army and recruiting new ones. Ernie was going to activate all the previous Hufflepuff members and start recruiting others. He would also use the time in their common room when teachers were not present to teach the defensive spells they had learnt so that the younger students would have a chance in case they needed to defend themselves. Luna was to do the same with the Ravenclaws and Neville and Ginny with the Gryffindors. All those that had previously been members still had their coins and they would be the main members with the responsibility of passing important messages onto all those without. One thing that Ginny had not worked out was how Hermione had charmed the coins and linked them all so well, otherwise she would have attempted to replicate them._

_They decided that large group meetings in the Room of Requirement would make them too conspicuous. They were well aware that it would be easy for Snape and the Carrows to work out who the ringleaders were, or at least make an educated guess at it, but they didn’t want to do anything that would make it too obvious as to who all the other members were. The main reason for recruiting more members would be to teach them like Harry had with them so that when the time came to fight there would be many of them ready to stand beside Harry, Ron, Hermione and the members of the Order of the Phoenix to help rid the world of He Who Must Not Be Named._

_With the decisions made and the initial plan set into process, they bade Hagrid farewell and headed back up to the castle for dinner. They would all have to wait until they were safely in their common rooms with the Death Eaters patrolling the castle or in their quarters out of sight and sound from the revolution being planned, to start their recruitments, but they all walked with a more confident step and heads held high now that they had more of a purpose._


	4. Chapter Four

The week steadily passed by as the four ringleaders of Dumbledore’s Army filled their time with lessons, meals, homework and attempted spying. As their initial excitement wore off they discovered that it wasn’t as easy as they had first thought it would be to spy on their Headmaster. It wasn’t much longer afterwards that they decided they really weren’t very good at it at all. It didn’t help that he had a knack of appearing where you least expected him to be, and the excuses they could come up with for being found in the dungeons or outside the Gargoyle to the Headmaster’s office at times when they shouldn’t be there were few and far between. 

So it was that the confident step faltered and their heads drooped making it a rather sorry little group of students that were heading across the grounds to Hagrid’s this afternoon. Hagrid got them all tea and offered rock cakes (having had warning of visitors coming he had made a special effort to be prepared for them this time) which they all nibbled at like a mouse nibbles at cheese whilst waiting for the tea to cool down enough to drink.

“Wha’s with all the long faces? Eh?” Hagrid’s voice was gruff but he asked the question kindly and it helped to get them all talking about their perceived failure instead of just moping into their cups of tea.

“We’ve not had much luck with the first mission.” Replied Ginny glumly.

“Yeh mean none of yeh classmates want to join up?” Hagrid said incredulously.

“Oh no!” Answered Luna with a dreamy smile. “Lots of our friends are signing up. We’re rolling togwushes with that mission.”

“It’s the sword,” continued Neville, “we’ve all been trying to work out Snape’s movements but if mine and Ginny’s efforts are anything to go by we haven’t had much luck.” He looked at the other two for clarification.

“No, not much luck here I’m afraid.” Ernie responded. “I started off ok, but the more I tried to watch him the more he noticed and he kept getting really suspicious whenever he saw me on my own in his vicinity.”

“I see a lot of Wrackspurts round his head, I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t really notice us at all.” Remarked Luna, her singsong voice breaking the glumness as they all giggled at the thought of Snape with a fuzzy brain.

“Yeh know when the best time is for his office to be vacant’s when the ol’ bat’s teachin’.” Hagrid thought out loud then, noticing the students eyes light up he said, “tha’ was a mistake. Yeh shouldn’ lis’en to me.” And started banging pots and pans around as if the sound would make them forget what he had just said.

It was a tactic that was not going to work. However loud his pots and pans clattering was it was not loud enough to drown out the thoughts and speculations of the four still sat at his table. The mugs of tea were forgotten and going cold, the rock cakes were nibbled at but left on the plate now that they suddenly had an opening. Now they had a starting point to run with for the Sword Reclamation. So named by Neville who pointed out that they weren’t stealing the sword, they were merely _reclaiming_ it for Gryffindor.

With a plan starting to form, they had to decide how they would meet up as not only would they be expected to be in class themselves, but they would not all be in the same one.

“That doesn’t matter!” Cried Ginny. “It’s a good thing we won’t all be in the same class! We can use Fred and Georges skiving snack boxes to get us out of class and meet on the way to Madam Pomfreys!”

“Yes!” Exclaimed Neville and Ernie at the same time.

“We will each need to have something different wrong with us to stop the teachers’ from connecting the incidents.” Luna advised in her wisdom. “I think I shall just advise mine that I am feeling all floopy and request to visit Madam Pomfrey for some Pepperup Potion.”

“Hmm,” Ginny mused, “yes I think that’s a good idea. Too many obvious hurts will stir suspicion. Ernie can take the Nosebleed Nougat, I could have the Fever Fudge and Neville can use a Puking Pastille. With Luna using her own illness we all have something different and no one should be able to notice any connection between them.”

“Great!” Said Ernie enthusiastically. “Now all we need to do is get hold of the props and decide on when we’re going to do it!”

“Getting hold of the props is easy.” Replied Ginny smugly. “I’ve got an unopened snack box in my trunk from my last visit to their shop this summer and as we’re using three different items we don’t need to get hold of any more boxes!”

“So that just leaves when to do it.” Neville pondered. “How about tomorrow?”

“There’s no time like the present, unless you’re a War-Thumping Troggle!” exclaimed Luna. “They live in the future and eat in the past you know.” She supplied confidently as she saw all their confused looks.

“So, tomorrow then.” Ginny continued, choosing not to request elaboration on whatever this strange creature of Luna’s actually was or how it could possibly live in the future, let alone eat in the past.

Ernie spoke whilst he studied his parchment of notes from his spying endeavours. “We should do it during the last lesson of the day because according to my notes he’s teaching first year Hufflepuff’s and I’ll be able to persuade them to cause some sort of havoc to delay him leaving the classroom.” He supplied this last comment rather fondly as he thought of his fellow Hufflepuff’s setting loose a dark creature or two to terrorize the old bat.

“Good idea. So, we each take our respective sweet after half an hour of the lesson has passed and then as soon as we’re outside and safely on our way to Madam Pomfrey’s…”

“Having shaken off anyone that’s sent with you.” Interrupted Ginny.

“Yes, having shaken off anyone that’s sent with you,” Continued Neville, “then take the antidote part of the sweet and get yourself to the Gargoyle as fast as possible.”

“Yeh don’ want teh be doin’ tha’ really.” Said Hagrid worriedly as he finally realised that his loud tidying had not worked one little bit.

“Don’t worry Hagrid,” soothed Luna, “it won’t be able to rain on us.”

“There is one problem though,” Ernie remarked, completely ignoring his urge to state that they would be inside so of course it wouldn’t be able to rain on them, weirdo, which was quite a compelling urge so he was proud of himself for not saying it.

“What?” ask Ginny.

“How do we get past the Gargoyle guarding the Headmaster’s office without the password?” He replied, posing the million galleon question.

This stumped them all and a thoughtful silence settled over the group. The silence continued on as one by one they all realised that they were in a room with a member of the Hogwarts Faculty, all of whom have knowledge of the password. As the silence continued and they each came to this conclusion they turned to look at Hagrid until they were all staring at him thoughtfully and the silence stretched on. Curious as to the sudden lack of speech and hopeful that it was because they weren’t going to use his madcap idea, Hagrid turned round to find all four of them staring straight at him and Ginny with her sweetest, most persuasive smile on her face. The one usually reserved solely for her mother when she wanted something she knew she wouldn’t ordinarily get.

“W..Wha’?” Hagrid stuttered with trepidation.

“Hagrid, you know how much this means to the Order and to Harry.” Ginny started pleadingly, unashamedly name-dropping Harry as she knew he wouldn’t be able to resist their request if she did. “Please, please can you tell us what the password is?”

At this, they all put their most endearing pleading smiling faces on to try and convince Hagrid that he did want to help them. Which would probably have been quite cute if it didn’t make the two boys look like complete crackpots.

“Alrigh’! Alrigh’!” said Hagrid if only to remove those stupid looks from their faces. “Its ‘Wulfric’ now don’t yeh go doing anything stupid!” 

They had all jumped up when he told them the password, galvanised into action by their excitement even though they wouldn’t be putting action to their words until the next day. Ginny and Luna both hugged Hagrid and they all set off back up to the castle to get their dinner. Ginny would have the sweets from the skiving snack boxes on her at breakfast the next day and Neville would get Ernie’s to him. The plan was in motion.

It was difficult for the four of them to act like nothing was going on that evening or the next day as they waited for the time to pass (which it did extremely slowly) so that the Sword Reclamation could begin. As the time dragged by their excitement rose. The sweets had been distributed and there was nothing standing in their way of the plan. They had no qualms about not being allowed out of class as they were all students that rarely messed around or did anything to warrant suspicion, so it was with slightly shaking hands that the time finally arrived for three of them to eat their illnesses.

Luna chose her moment to approach Professor McGonnagal carefully. She waited until one of her fellow classmates had asked a particularly difficult question and then she interrupted with her request to go to the Hospital Wing. Professor McGonnagal was concentrating more on explaining this particular law of transfiguration than paying close attention to Luna so her short sharp affirmative happened just how Luna had planned and she was able to leave without any further questioning. She soon bumped into Ginny who had actually managed to turn a brighter red than her hair and was hastily chewing the antidote to rectify this.

“Hello Ginny, you got out ok then.” Luna smiled dreamily at Ginny and then twirled between the sunlight and the shade as they continued on up the corridor. “I’m so excited to be helping the cause!”

Ginny smiled at Luna’s prancing enthusiasm and hurried her step alongside her as they made their way together towards the Gargoyle protecting the Headmasters office. It wasn’t much longer before Neville joined them, apologising that he hadn’t reached them sooner and wiping his mouth with a hanky.

“Here, have a toothflossing stringmint.” Luna offered pulling a small hessian bag of the sweets out of her pocket.

“Thanks!” Neville smiled. “I would have got here sooner but had to hide whilst Marvin Mudbottle and Harmin Hosbutt helped Ernie to the Hospital Wing. I don’t think he’ll make it here somehow. They were joking with him about fainting and his nose was really bleeding.”

“Oh no!” Ginny exclaimed, her face a picture of worry. “He didn’t say anything about not being able to stand blood. I hope he’s ok.”

“He will be as good as new once Madam Pomfrey has finished with him.” Replied Luna perceptively.

Nodding in agreement they turned the corner and were greeted by the magnificence of the Guardian Gargoyle. All of them could feel their adrenalin pumping and the nerves kicking in as finally they were stood outside armed with the password and the comforting knowledge that the office would be empty. 

Looking between the other two Ginny smiled nervously and uttered “Wulfric.”

The great Gargoyle groaned and shifted and started spiralling upwards revealing the staircase. They moved onto it one by one, Luna with a look of dreamy awe on her face, Neville with one of wonder and Ginny with one of anticipation, being the only one that had been in the Headmasters office before.

Hagrid had been right to suggest this as a good time for reclaiming the sword. The office, though still full of whirring instruments and Portraits that were either chattering with each other or quietly snoring into their chests, was free of Snape. As Ginny and Neville moved across to the case that the sword was displayed in, next to Headmaster Black who was watching them disdainfully, Luna pranced across the room to the shelves near the desk, mesmerised by the items on them.

“How are we going to get it out of the case?” Asked Ginny.

“I hope you three nitwits are not about to do what I think you’re about to do.” Phineas sneered at them.

“Shut up moron!” Retorted Neville to Ginny’s shocked exclamation of “Neville!”

This did not go down well with the former Headmaster. As they went back to the job in hand he ranted on and on about how they couldn’t have talked him like that in _his_ day. In _his_ day people treated you with proper respect and certainly didn’t break into the Headmasters office in broad daylight. As he continued on in this manner, Ginny sent a smashing hex at the glass casing and Neville retrieved the sword. 

They headed back to the door with smiles on their faces, calling Luna as they went. They were starting down the steps as Luna turned around from replacing a whirring beetlewig when the fire suddenly brightened, there was a whooshing sound and Headmaster Snape stood on the hearth taking in the scene before him.

“What on Salazar’s Grave is going on here?” He demanded in his most threatening voice, drawing himself up to full height as his anger worked itself up to full tempo on seeing Luna, the smashed and empty display case and the open office door.

“Come. Back. Here.” He ordered between gritted teeth.


	5. Chapter Five

“Come. Back. Here.” Snape ordered between gritted teeth.

Luna jumped, emitting a sharp intake of breath and froze where she was, assessing the situation. Ginny and Neville had nearly made it to stairs, but were still visible from the door so had no chance of running for it. They looked at each other in fear and then, giving in to the inevitable, skulked back into the office to stand before their hated headmaster, still clutching the sword.

“What is the meaning of this?” Snape hissed, inwardly wincing as he seemed to channel some of Lord Voldemort’s charm.

All three students now stood before him. None of them seemed to be willing to answer him and from the defiant looks on their faces Snape didn’t think that he would get anything out of them. He took the sword off Neville, turned around and slowly placed it on his desk whilst being careful to keep his facial expression stony so that they couldn’t see any of his internal turmoil in its reflection in the window. He was deliberately taking his time so as to increase the tension and could see that it was working from the looks on their faces. In times gone by he would have got a lot of satisfaction out of this, however his enjoyment in harassing the students had waned over the years and the current students’ stupidity had put him in a tenuous situation which made him more angry than usual and took all the joy out of the baiting. 

Turning back round to face them he folded his arms across his chest and intoned “Well?” as he raised an eyebrow for good effect.

“Just a prank,” said Neville, “Sir.” He added after a jab in the ribs from Ginny. 

He hadn’t wanted to give the real reason and saying it was a prank was the best he could come up with in short notice. None of them had thought to come up with a plan should they meet with any situation other than being successful.

Neville leaned back a bit as Snape towered over him and glared at him with a stare so penetrating he thought he could read his mind and see the truth. At that thought Neville quickly averted his eyes to the floor not wanting to give away the real reason behind their now labelled ‘prank’ and all three of them fidgeted, uncomfortable as they waited for their Professors’ response.

“I see,” he sneered, “and exactly _what_ did you think to gain by performing a _prank_ involving the sword of Gryffindor?” 

As Luna started to step in with an answer, Snape waved his hand at her impatiently. “No! Stop it! I do not want to know what feeble excuses you are about to dream up. You are all on detention. For a month. You will report to me at seven o’clock tomorrow evening without fail.”

He then collected his papers for the staff meeting and, leaving the sword where it was, escorted the students out of his office.

“You will go to your respective common rooms and may only leave for your dinner this evening. I do not wish to see you at any other point and I will be informing your Head’s of House _exactly_ what you have attempted to do.” 

Snape was practically spitting at them as he instructed them to get out of his sight and the three of them almost ran down the corridor as soon as they were allowed to leave. Turning his attention to the Gargoyle once Ginny, Luna and Neville had disappeared from the corridor, Snape changed the password to stop them from being able to get back in and then headed to the staff room.

The staff meeting dragged on as he thought it would, making his anger worse. He had set it for before dinner hoping to encourage them to say less so that they could all go and eat, but they hadn’t said less, they’d just said it quicker. He found himself unable to pay full attention to the meeting as the sword incident was playing at the back of his mind and he knew that he would a) have to suitably punish the students and b) tell Lord Voldemort. Neither things really appealed. 

Once all points had been covered and he had finally been able to close the meeting he had swept from the room with his cloak snapping around his ankles and headed to the Great Hall where he proceeded to push his food round his plate whilst glaring blackly at the students. Noticing Neville and Ginny rising to leave at the same time Luna did, he quickly left the hall from the teachers entrance so that he was at the main door when the three of them reached it. 

“I do hope you are headed to your common rooms,” he intoned with a raise of his eyebrow.

All three of them jumped guiltily and their whispering stopped as they nodded and hurried off. Watching them go again, Snape decided that the children of Hogwarts were definitely going to be the death of him this year. Then he turned and headed back to the Head’s office to decide what his next step was to be. 

He had informed Ginny, Neville and Luna in no uncertain terms that they were to report to him at seven o’clock the next evening for their punishment as the seriousness of the crime committed meant that he was going to decide personally what it was going to be. He had been his most menacing in order to get across the point that his would be a worse punishment than that of the Carrows, but really he knew that the Carrows would punish them far worse than anything he would give them to do so it was merely a cover to get them out of the Carrows’ reach.

Arriving at the office, he sat down at the Headmasters desk just about managing not to put his elbows on the desktop and head in his hands. The fake sword of Gryffindor lay across his parchments on the table and his quiet despair was written all over his face. He now had to request an audience with the Dark Lord and tell him exactly what had happened. To him, this sword was the real one, so Snape failing to protect it – even though the students didn’t manage to complete their theft – meant that he was going to be in bad favour. If he didn’t tell the Dark Lord himself then one of the Carrows or other spies within the school would and he had a feeling that his punishment would be worse if that happened. Not that it would be a walk in the park as it was.

It had been sheer chance that he had decided to floo back to the office instead of walk. Usually he liked to stride up the corridors and stairs to the Headmaster’s rooms so that he could terrorise the students whilst en route, but in this case he had decided to floo straight there to collect the papers he had left behind before facing the vultures that made up the staff meeting. Nothing had prepared him for what he had found in the office upon his arrival. In fairness to the students involved, they had helped him in a way. Their actions had put him into such a foul mood that the Carrows had been perfectly delighted with the way he had run the staff meeting. Not so much could be said for the rest of the staff, but at least it had strengthened his position as a Death Eater. He had his part to play and not a soul alive could be confided in.

Now he had to request an audience with the Dark Lord. 

“It will be best for you to do it now, my boy, rather than waiting any longer.” The voice came from behind and above him and had made him jump. It seemed that Dumbledore had deigned to wake up whilst he was in the office for once.

“I realise that, Albus, I am not quite that much of a fool,” Snape replied, “However I must secure this sword against any further attempts of thievery whilst I am gone.”

Pushing himself into a standing position and looking once more at the sword on the desk as he tried to work out how to secure it whilst he was away from the castle. Just changing the password for the Gargoyle was simply not going to be good enough. He decided that for now he would put it back into its case and apply an unbreakable charm to the glass to ensure no further attempts could be successful. Having completed this task he touched his wand to his Dark Mark and stalked from the office without another word or glance spared to Dumbledore and strode to the apparition point, apparating when his mark burned as the Dark Lord permitted him an audience.

He landed outside the gates of Malfoy Manor and swiftly made his way up the sweeping drive to the ornate front entrance which was opened by an House Elf that he paid no attention to whatsoever. Malfoy was lying in wait for him and practically pounced him as he tried to find out what he had requested an audience for.

“What’s happened? Have you found Potter? Have you lost him again?” Lucius bombarded him with questions as they walked across the entrance hall, hoping for something to happen to lower Snapes obvious favour with the Dark Lord and hoping it may take some of the heat off himself and his family.

“It is no concern of yours.” Was Snape’s infuriating reply, and then he left Lucius standing in the hallway as he entered the room where the Dark Lord awaited him.

Dropping straight to his knees in front of Lord Voldemort he lifted the hem of his robes to his lips and kept his eyes down as he waited for permission to rise and speak.

“Snape, my boy,” Voldemort addressed him, “rise and inform me why you felt such an urgent need to come see me.”

Snape rose to his feet and stood facing the Dark Lord as he replied. “My Lord, forgive me for interrupting you, but I felt that I had to come straight away.”

The Dark Lord’s eyes seemed to narrow into smaller slits than normal, but he nodded for him to continue.

“Three of Potters little friends,” Snape spat, “obtained access to the Head’s office and attempted to steal the sword of Gryffindor.”

He was trying to keep his muscles relaxed in an attempt to lessen the pain of the cruciatus curse, but it was never easy to be relaxed in the presence of the Dark Lord. Especially when you knew that the words you were speaking were going to intensify his always bubbling anger as well as direct it at yourself. Which happened almost immediately. With an almost inhuman cry Lord Voldemort had cast the curse at Snape who fell to the floor in agony barely able to here the ranting and raving from his Master over how he had let something like this happen and as the curse continued on and on he soon fell from consciousness altogether.

As the pain began to reside and awareness returned Snape kept his eyes closed as the twitching in his arms and legs continued and he attempted to ascertain where the Dark Lord was before admitting to consciousness. He could hear him pacing back and forth and thought that the sound was coming from behind him. Ever so slowly he cracked one eye open, and then the other to find that he had been right. His Master was pacing behind him to and fro in front of the fire. Carefully, he pulled his legs up and turned towards Voldemort until he was in a bowing position, head down, showing his submissiveness and penance for his errors.

“Severus,” The Dark Lord hissed, “I see that your punishment has reminded you of your position.”

Snape did not reply either by voice, which he did not believe he could have done even if he had tried, or by body language. He stayed where he was and waited.

“You know the mistake you made?” Voldemort asked.

“Yes, my Lord.” Rasped Snape as he answered.

“You may rise. I do not wish to talk to the floor.” He continued disdainfully.

“Thank you my Lord.” Snape continued to attempt to speak in a subservient and grateful sounding tone, but the rasping was not lending his voice to anything much at all. To further show penance he kept his head bowed, which made his hair, lanky from the sweat caused by the cruciatus curse, fall over his eyes so that he was able to look up and watch Voldemort without seeming to be doing so at all.

“The sword is no longer safe in your hands at Hogwarts.” The Dark Lord mused. “It must be removed as soon as I have decided on a suitable place for it. You will return to your post until I call you.”

Snape, taking his cue, bowed deeply and slowly backed out the room whilst saying, “As is your will.”


	6. Chapter Six

Arriving back at the school’s apparition point Snape made his way through the gates and across by the lake to one of the lesser used and lesser known entrances to the dungeons. He was aiming straight for his potions lab rather than going through the front entrance and up to the Headmasters office so as to avoid seeing as many people as possible whilst in this dilapidated state. He could not afford to show weakness to anyone.

His progress was slow as the less his muscles twitched and trembled the more his knees would buckle and the weaker he became. He was grateful to finally be able to prop himself against the external wall of the Castle upon reaching the entrance. It was covered in moss and he scrabbled at the vegetation for a moment before finding the lock. Aiming his wand he whispered a hoarse _‘Alohomora’_ and pushed himself away from the wall as he heard the faint click of the lock turning. He pushed through the door, allowing it to swing shut behind him as he forced himself to move along the corridor and to his lab.

With his wand still in his hand from opening the outside door, he disabled the wards and entered the room, falling to the side as his legs gave way beneath him he knocked the now empty mouse cage from the shelf along with some empty vials and jars. The noise served to revive him enough to haul himself to his feet, using the shelf as support and make his way to the cabinet that stored his personal potions. In particular, his invigoration draught kept specifically for occasions when the Dark Lord saw fit to punish him.

Once he had removed the cork and shakily brought the vile to his lips and managed to swallow all the potion the effects were immediate. He no longer felt weak, no longer needed to support himself against the wall or cabinet and was able to make his way through the other door to his personal suite where he lit a small fire, grabbed his bottle of firewhisky and a crystal cut glass from the side board and lowered himself into his armchair. 

It was only when he woke up early the next morning that he realised the half empty bottle of Ogdens and empty glass dropped in his lap had not been such a good idea. He had only meant to have a drink whilst mulling over the events of the evening before, but had ended up having many more and passing out where he was sat which had resulted in a sleep that did not refresh and a crick in the neck from falling asleep sat upright.

The slight feeling of hangover was neatly dealt with by swigging an hangover potion from his cabinet in his personal laboratory. He showered, changed and headed up to the Great Hall for breakfast and to see what news was being printed. Also, he wished to have a word with Hagrid as that evening he would be setting the punishment for the insubordinate students. As much as it could be easy to go down the avenue of: ‘their actions caused my pain, therefore they should be punished in kind’ Snape knew that he needed to protect them from the Carrow’s idea of punishment therefore he had decided to speak to Hagrid and have them serve their detention with him in the Forbidden Forest.

Taking his seat at the teachers table he poured himself some coffee and helped himself to bacon and eggs whilst his eyes took in all the details of the room, taking note of which students were now missing and which weren’t, as well as who was sat where and what possible outbreaks of violence could happen. He gave Luna, Ginny and Neville his particularly fierce glare in order to remind them that they needed to be on one hundred percent best behaviour. Finishing his breakfast he rose and headed to where Hagrid was consuming a gargantuan amount of meat and eggs.

“I require your assistance, Hagrid, with detention for three students,” he stated without any preamble.

“Wha’?” Hagrid attempted to say through a mouthful of food.

“Students, Hagrid, that are to have detention,” said Snape irritably, “I need you to cover their detentions. Have them help you with your creatures in the Forbidden Forest.”

“I thin’ I can manage tha’,” Hagrid replied, having finished his mouthful, “Which o’ the little terror’s am I havin’?”

“Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood and Ginny Weasley,” Snape replied completely misinterpreting Hagrid’s attempted cover-up of his reaction to this news as him choking on the large quantity of food that he was eating.

“Righ’ righ’ I’ll sor’ som’at out,” Hagrid said between coughs and grunts as he mopped his face with his hanky.

Snape raised an eyebrow at him, inclined his head slightly and replied, “I’ll send them to you straight after they have seen me at seven o’clock this evening.”

The rest of the day passed like any other. Imbecilic students in the classroom; unimaginative excuses for unfinished homework; fights in the corridor; giggling teenage girls mooning over their fellow students and just generally people getting in his way as usual. After dinner, he just had one last confrontation to deal with and then the evening was his and he would hopefully have it all to himself.

Ginny, Neville and Luna all presented themselves to the headmaster’s office dot on seven o’clock and he motioned for the three of them to stand in front of the desk as he turned back from looking out the window. 

“Due to the gravity of your actions I have decided that simply writing lines will not suffice.” He crossed his arms as he paused to let this sink in. “Therefore I am sending you to Hagrid to help with his creatures in the Forbidden Forest. You will not stray between here and there and you will do everything that Hagrid tells you to. Do you understand?”

Not daring to speak as it would give away how pleased they were with this outcome, the three students nodded and left as Snape dismissed them with a wave of his hand.

The next day continued in much the same vein as any other typical teaching day. It was only when Snape was sat at his desk after dinner, working through the post that he received as headmaster that was worthy of response, that his mark burned and any chance of a peaceful evening on his own was scuppered. He accio’d his Death Eater garb and proceeded to the apparition point outside the castle gates, noting as he put the robe and mask on and touched his wand to his mark that neither of the Carrows were joining him.

He arrived outside the Malfoy’s mansion and deciding that no others had been summoned he stowed the mask in his cloak and continued up the elegant drive to the front door which was opened by a house elf that ushered him through to the drawing room where he was immediately in the Dark Lord’s presence. He was stood in front of the fire, pouring himself a glass of wine which he placed on a table next to the fire before turning to speak to his visitor. Snape had bowed low on entering the room and only raised his head when Lord Voldemort began to speak.

“Ah, Severus. I wanted to see you about our little, shall we say, debacle with the sword of Gryffindor.”

Snape inclined his head in a small nod to indicate that he was listening as he waited for Voldemort to continue.

“As I said before I have decided that Hogwarts is not a safe place for it.” Voldemort turned to the chair next to the fire, sat down and took a sip of the wine he had poured. “I am now satisfied that I have found a much safer place for it and it will be moved tomorrow evening.”

Snape nodded again to show his understanding.

“You will bring it to the castle gates when I call for you and hand it to my most trusted servant,” finished Lord Voldemort as he watched Snape’s face to make sure that his intimations of Snape’s inability to keep the sword safe and secure and his lack of trust in him had sunk in. Then he held out his hand to him.

Snape replied, “Yes, My Lord.” Then bent to one knee, bowing his head over the Dark Lord’s hand and kissed the ring on his finger.

He then backed out of the room, more to make sure there were no more punishments to be received than to show courtesy to him, but showing that sort of courtesy was always a wise move even if it came with an ulterior motive. He was able to leave the room with no further inkling from Voldemort that he was aware of him and he hurried back to the castle, luckily without bumping into Lucius as he was not in any mood to deal with his snide remarks.

On returning to the office he looked first to Phineas’ portrait to check whether he was there or not. As he was not he knew that he was in his other portrait, attempting to keep track on the trio as Snape had requested he do as soon as he discovered that they had taken the portrait with them. Turning his attention away from the empty portrait he looked to that of Dumbledore’s and found that he was still awake. He then relayed to him the outcome of his summons.

“This is good news indeed, Severus,” Dumbledore said after listening quietly to all Snape had to say, “This confirms my belief of Harry’s need for the sword in his task I requested he complete as well as indicating that my belief of Tom Riddle’s knowledge of what the sword could be used for. With him believing that the sword is safely tucked away Harry will have more chance of being successful.”

“And will you deign to stop talking in riddles or are you prepared to tell me of this so that I can better help that dratted boy?” Replied Snape.

Dumbledore chuckled. “My dear boy, that ‘dratted boy’ as you so succinctly put it, will need the sword and you must get it to him. That is all you need to know. You know, Severus, that you are too close to your second master to be given the full story. It would be far too risky for the Order and for your own safety.”

Snape just snorted in response. Dumbledore had looked sternly over his glasses at him as he had berated him and Snape wondered at being put in his place so firmly by the shadow of a dead man. He decided that it was better to call it a night rather than get into a full blown argument with the old headmaster.

The following evening he headed down to the apparition point with the fake sword of Gryffindor wrapped in black silk, only to find that it was Bellatrix that he had to hand it over to. 

“Come on _Snivellus!”_ she cackled as she took great delight in his misfortune.

“It is not a _race_ Bellatrix,” replied Snape disdainfully, handing the sword to her and crossing his arms across his chest.

Bellatrix cackled again and apparated away whilst Snape sneered at her and then at the empty space that she had just occupied. Shaking himself out of his reverie Snape turned and headed back into the castle and up to the headmasters office.

As he had thought, Dumbledore’s portrait was awake and eager to hear about where the fake sword had been taken.

“Bellatrix taunted me, took the sword and left,” Snape told the portrait, “there was no time for interrogation and any question I may have asked would only have aroused further suspicion.”

“But surely there could have been some intimation? You say she taunted you, you of all people could have worded a taunt in response that could have stirred her to respond and let slip this information!” Dumbledore replied.

Snape was close to being lost for words at this and took a deep breath in order to tell Dumbledore what he really thought. Luckily there was no further chance for argument along these lines as they were interrupted at that point by Phineas who appeared back in his portrait and gave them the information that they had been waiting for. The boy was in the Forest of Dean and it was now time for Snape to get the sword to him in a manner that did not give himself away and meant that Potter had to go through a courageous act to retrieve it.

“There’s no time like the present,” muttered Snape as he got up and turned to Dumbledore’s portrait.


	7. Chapter Seven

Snape avoided Dumbledore’s eyes as he pulled his picture frame forward to reveal the wall behind. Taking out his wand he uttered an incantation at the same time as twisting and jabbing his wand towards the wall, revealing the hiding place of the real sword of Godric Gryffindor. Reverently he lifted it from its resting place and wrapped it in black silk as he turned to leave the office.

“You know what to do?” Dumbledore asked quietly as he watched Snape stride to the door.

Snape pulled the door open, turned to the portrait and said tightly, “Of course.”

He allowed the spiral staircase to lower him to the gargoyle whilst he stood and calmed himself from the anger Dumbledore had stirred in him and cleared his mind so that he was fully concentrating on the task in hand. Once at the bottom he moved into the corridors and made his way swiftly through the castle and down to the apparition point. He took great care once outside to ensure he wasn’t being followed and checked again before apparating to make sure no-one was skulking nearby or watching his movements. Satisfied, he apparated to the Forest of Dean, making sure to concentrate all his thoughts on Harry Potter within the Forest of Dean in order to land as close to where the boy was hiding as possible.

On arriving in the forest he was pleased to see that the boy had some sense and was nowhere in sight. The pleasure was found in the fact that at least someone, even if it was that insufferable know-it-all Granger, had got through to him the need to be careful and not just go charging in all the time. It had only taken seven years. Knowing that he had at least landed in the area where Potter was, even if not directly near him, Snape set about finding a decent place to put the sword for it to be taken in the manner required, which had a decent enough hiding place for him so he could make sure Potter was alright and got the sword before going back to the castle to report back to Albus.

The forest was dark with some light trickling through the ceiling of leaves. The bracken under foot was thick and even with all his practice and ability as a spy he was not able to keep totally silent but with each crackle of noise he made he could ascertain none echoing it and could neither see, hear nor sense any other nearby. As he moved through the forest he saw nearby a rippling surface with more than just the dapple of light that the forest floor contained. 

As he headed over to it to investigate an idea began to form in his mind. If it was a brook then the idea that was forming in his mind wouldn’t work. If it was a small lake or, indeed, a large and deep puddle then the idea just might work. He inspected the surface and ascertained that although there was a little brook flowing into it there was no brook flowing out of it at any other point so it was a small lake. It was also nice and deep too, which would work very well.

Satisfied that this was the spot where he would leave the sword, he carefully unwrapped the it, stowing the black silk in his robe and then swiftly threw it blade down into the lake. He then took out his wand and cast _‘gelidus unda’_ and watched as the lake froze across the top. Casting a ‘lumos’ Snape was satisfied to see that the goblin forged sword glinted in the light from his wand. He then looked around to see if there was somewhere that he could easily watch from, somewhere that he could be hidden and still complete the last part of his plan.

Luckily, there were two beech trees next to each other whose trunks had nearly entwined they had grown that close together. Clearing his tracks as he went, Snape took up his post hidden within the two trees and made himself as comfortable and sturdy as possible so that he would not slip or have to move and give away his presence. Once he was happy that he would do neither, he prepared himself, took a deep breath and cast his patronus.

All his feelings of love, of Lily, of safety, protection and happiness were imbued into his patronus to help the boy feel at ease with the creature and able to follow it willingly. He gazed upon the silver doe, translucent and beautiful in the dark of the forest, before allowing her to walk away from him. He watched as she picked her way through the trees, this way and that, gradually getting further and further away from him until he was left completely alone in the dark. He could still feel her strength and her love but he waited for what felt like hours before her bright light crept back across his vision.

He allowed her to walk forward until he saw that the boy had followed as he had hoped he would. Then he directed her until she was stood on the lake directly above the sword. On seeing Potter hesitate as the silver doe stopped, he made her turn her head to him hoping that this would help him see what had led him to. As the boy made to speak to her Snape ended the spell plunging them into darkness. As he grew accustomed to the empty feeling the patronus left behind and his eyes became familiar with the dimmer light he saw the boy attempting to retrieve the sword by magic and his faith in how stupid Potter could be was restored.

As his futile attempts of retrieval continued to fail Snape started to fear that he would never be able to pull the sword out of the water. He continued to watch, his fingers twitching with irritation and the strong urge to yell at Potter like he would have had this been a classroom environment. His irritation soon turned to agitation as he watched him strip down to his boxers, leap into the frozen lake and then not come straight back up. In fact, he was taking so long to resurface that Snape was starting to feel, with trepidation, that the fool was going to drown himself. He couldn’t see very clearly but he could hear the splashing of the water caused by him thrashing around and even though he was not timing the dive he felt in his very soul that the boy had been under for too long.

Just as Snape had made up his mind to move in and rescue the boy because he was physically incapable of sitting back and watching him drown himself, even without the Unbreakable Vow, a noise that one could be forgiven to mistake for an elephant rustled through the trees and branches getting louder and louder until that youngest Weasley boy burst into the clearing throwing his rucksack onto the floor and diving into the lake fully clothed. Seconds later he re-emerged with the sword in one hand and Potter in the other. 

Waiting only to make sure that he hadn’t drowned, Snape watched as Ron revived him, threw some clothes at him along with a feeble joke about being so pale he could be seen a mile off and the pair collapsed onto the ground in an awkward silence as Harry regained his lung capacity. Deciding that this was as good a time as any Snape made sure his tracks were cleared away and apparated back to Hogwarts.

On his return he regaled the actions of the evening to Dumbledore keeping to himself the full detail of the use of his patronus as this was sacred only to him. He had to deal with many interruptions from the previous headmaster. Requests to repeatedly tell him how the boy looked after his near miss experience and questions regarding his demeanour when he first saw him and his reaction to Ron. Snape resented the response that the young brat always garnered from Albus, even whilst he was led by the hand through his tasks and answered most of the interruptions with one word responses that were snapped at the headmaster with all the restlessness and annoyance he felt. 

Dumbledore seemed extremely satisfied when he reached the part where Ron had appeared, saved the day and retrieved the sword. 

“I had a feeling Ronald would need my clicker,” he mused mostly to himself.

Snape gave him a strange look, then shrugged the comment off and retired to his room for a nice hot shower to ease his aching muscles. He was starting to get too old to be playing around in trees in the middle of a cold winter night. His knees protesting much more than they used to about staying in one position for so long.


	8. Chapter Eight

The atmosphere at Hogwarts worsened. More and more of the muggleborns were fleeing the previously safe halls and going into hiding. Students were being pulled out of school by their parents as the fear in the wizarding world grew. Neville, Ginny and Luna had had mild detentions for their month of repentance, in comparison to what the students were being put through now. The Carrows had started to take any opportunity, such as an un-tucked shirt, to cast a curse at the unfortunate student as Snape’s hold over them began to break.

He had been pleased to see that the three students had presented themselves to him promptly that next evening for their detention and he had sent them out to the Forbidden Forest with Hagrid hoping that the Carrows would see it as a decent punishment, but they hadn’t. They had aired their dislike of the way the students were disciplined with the Dark Lord and he had ordered Snape to send all students acting out of turn to them for punishment. His attempt to shield the students from this had caused him to suffer greatly at the Dark Lords hands and he had been forced to allow his wishes to be carried out.

Sitting in the Great Hall at mealtimes had become a penance for him as he saw the numbers dwindling and the fear on the faces of the majority left. The Slytherins, of course, revelled in the punishment that the other students received and took great delight in being the ones that didn’t require such treatment. But it was the accusing stares of the other students that really hit home. He had to present a Death Eater front. Had to be seen to be his intimidating and bullying self. Most importantly he could not afford to show any leniency to the students in any respect. As such, it meant that the more out of hand the Carrows got, the less ability he had to stop them. 

He could not believe that this was the future Dumbledore had envisioned. The sooner Potter managed to defeat the Dark Lord the better.

 

***

 

With students going into hiding or being taken out by their family, it wasn’t long before Dumbledore’s Army began to dwindle. Neville, Ginny, Luna and Ernie kept up a campaign to keep everyone active, even when they had to leave the school. The coins helped with keeping some people in the know and then word of mouth helped to reach everyone else. They had tried to make sure that everyone that left had some way of being contacted even if it was long winded. 

Whilst they were in school, even when it was just Neville left of the three ring leaders, they attempted to keep their fellow students, especially the younger children, out of trouble and out of the Carrows reach. Often stepping in to claim blame in order to save them from the horrors the Carrows liked to dish out. It wasn’t always an action that ended in rescue. There were many times when their detention sabotage attempts failed and they all bore the brunt, at one time or another, of being caught.

As the group continued to dwindle of its muggle and half-born members until none of them were left, it soon became apparent that the Death Eaters were turning their attention to the full-blood members of the dissenters’. Luna had been taken off the train by Death Eaters on her return to school after Christmas due to her Father’s attempt to print the real news that people wanted to read. Then, at Easter, Ginny went home and didn’t return. Every student involved in the rebellion were finding it harder and harder to act out. There were less and less times when they could sneak out and place graffiti without being caught. It was definitely getting more dangerous to do anything but keep their heads down.

They discovered exactly how dangerous when Michael Corner decided to help out Craig Maddock, a Gryffindor first year that the Carrow’s had given detention for speaking out of turn in class. They had chained him up in Filch’s dungeon and left him there. Believing that he had time to release him, Michael stealthily crept into the room and, producing his wand, whispered ‘Alohomora’ whilst aiming the spell at the cuffs round the boys wrists. As Craig fell free and Michael caught him, Alecto Carrow waltzed into the room.

“Well, well, well! What do we have here then?!” She crowed in delight. 

Michael stood up, bravely shielding Craig behind him as the first year cowered in fright.

“What are we going to do with you?” She said thoughtfully, whilst rolling her wand between her hands. 

Craig’s quivering got worse as Amicus Carrow came round the corner dragging yet another first year with him. This one, seemingly hadn’t done anything wrong as on seeing Craig out of his shackles and Michael stood in front of him, Amicus let the Ravenclaw boy go, throwing him into the corner as he did so. 

“When you get the chance,” whispered Michael to Craig as Alecto excitedly explained to Amicus what she had found, “grab the other boy and run! Find Neville Longbottom if you can.”

The delighted laughter of the two adults in the room and the comments about how they must obviously be too soft with their punishments didn’t bode well for Michael and he grabbed hold of Craig to pull him to the side closest to the door and the other first year. As soon as the Carrow’s placed their full attention onto him he moved to the other side, away from Craig so that they had to fully turn their back on the door to face him. 

“Crucio!” Cried Amicus and Michael fell to the floor screaming in agony. 

He didn’t see anything else happen as the next spell to fly at him was a Dark Magic spell that he had not come across before and it flashed so brightly that it blinded him. Luckily, Craig chose this moment to grab the other boy and leg it out the room. They ran and ran up through the corridors until they reached the Ravenclaw common room and, leaving the other boy there, Craig then continued on to the Gryffindor common, racing in as fast as he could yelling out for Neville, who was sat in front of the fire and ran to him immediately.

“What’s happened? Are you alright?” He asked Craig.

“Dungeons…..Carrows…..Michael…..Corner……Ravenclaw……Being……Tortured…” Craig panted breathlessly. 

Neville needed no more information. Without a thought as to what he would actually do when he got there, Neville legged it out of the common room and down the stairs into the bowels of the Castle. As he got closer and closer to the dungeon he could hear the Carrows’ delight and Michael’s screams of pain. This was far worse than any detention they had previously dished out.

Rounding the corner he skidded to a halt as Alecto and Amicus came out of the dungeon, arm in arm, discussing how puny the boy had been and how easily overcome. They were so busy talking to each other in detail about each spell that they had used and how he had reacted to them and how their spell had interacted with the other’s spell that they were oblivious to Neville stood in the corridor and he was able to flatten himself against the wall as they passed without noticing him.

As they carried on up the corridor and out of the dungeons and their voices faded into silence, Neville released the breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding and darted into the dungeon to help Michael. He was so shocked by what he saw. He hadn’t seen any of the spells that the Carrows had used, but it was quite obvious that they had badly tortured him. He helped Michael to his feet. 

“Come on,” Neville said gently, “Let’s get you to the Hospital Wing.” He only hoped that they wouldn’t meet the Carrow’s whilst they made their way there as it was going to be slow going.

 

***

 

Along with Michael’s torture came the catalyst that allowed the Carrows to completely let loose, much to the other teacher’s consternation. The two Death Eater’s proposed new forms of detention involving the other students carrying out the punishment. They also introduced this punishment as the Crucio curse so that the students carrying out the detentions had extra Dark Arts practice.

As time went on more changes happened within Hogwarts. Voldemort ordered Dementors to guard the exits in an attempt to keep the young witches and wizards within the walls so that they could be persuaded and cajoled round to his point of view. His plan for cleansing would only be complete if he had the pure-bloods in his hands as well to continue the line of pure-blooded wizards and witches and keep their magic powerful and undiluted. He was dissatisfied with the continual trickle of students running away from the school and it pleased him when the Carrows added curses to all the entrances. To keep in his role and not cause any further suspicion Snape also suggested placing Death Eaters as guards as well, advising the Dark Lord that it would help to stop the Dementors from giving valuable pure-blooded students the Kiss.

Whilst Snape was attempting to keep the students as safe as possible and seem like he was giving valuable advice, he also knew that things were getting far too far out of hand. He knew that the changes happening around the school were cementing the hatred of him felt by the non-Death Eater professors as well as the members of the Order. He spent most of his free moments, which were few and far between, pacing agitatedly around the Castle corridors bemoaning how long it was taking Potter to complete whatever the task was that Dumbledore had set him. He had originally paced in the Headmaster’s office, but discovered that this was not a good idea as Albus’ comments were more of a hindrance to his mood than a help.

 

***

 

It wasn’t too much longer before the Carrows’ decided that Neville was too much of a thorn in their side even for his pure-blood status. They couldn’t persecute him for his bloodline and Neville had thought that meant that they had no hold over him, until he received a letter from his Gran. The Death Eater’s had previous form for kidnapping the children of adult dissenter’s to blackmail them into being a part of their cause. As they couldn’t do this with Neville and he was obviously a great annoyance to them they had decided to turn the tables of their usual acts of bullying and go after his Gran instead. Needless to say it didn’t work. The letter from his Gran telling him what happened filled him with awe and the pride that she described to him, especially when she told him he was living up to all expectations just like his parents, made him feel so much love for her and gave him the inspiration he needed to keep going.

When Terry Boot was beaten up just for talking about Harry Potter and the rumour of the dragon that was spreading like wildfire around the wizarding world and then Neville was attacked by Professor Carrow in her muggle studies class he decided it was time to go into hiding. He also thought that leaving the school would be a bad idea. He wanted to be close to his fellow students that were still taking classes and in the direct fire of the Death Eater Regime. Rather than acquiesce to her punishment, or retaliate in kind, Neville stood up, turned and left the classroom.

Alecto’s resounding cry of anger was enough to make him break into a run. Apparently there was some strange connection between her and her brother because as she tore out of her classroom after him, her brother turned the corner at the end of the corridor. Neville stopped short for a moment like a rabbit caught in headlights until the noise of Alecto’s heels clacking on the stone floor of the corridor galvanised him into action. He was unable to go back and unable to forward as Alecto called out to her brother to stop him. He was, however, able to take the staircase in the middle of the corridor. Racing up the stairs and along corridors and up more stairs he was, at this point, simply trying to avoid his pursuers. 

Unfortunately, no matter how hard he tried and how fast he ran, Neville could still always hear them behind him, sometimes close by, at other times further back. It was at a time when they were further back and he had turned to look that he realised, in turning, that he was now on the seventh floor next to the tapestry of Barnabas and the trolls. Neville nearly laughed out loud as he realised that this meant he was outside the Room of Requirement. Concentrating hard on the things that he needed the most, he quickly paced up and down the corridor three times, nearly jumping with delight when the door appeared. He was able to escape with the Carrows shouts still ringing in their ears and he would swear later, when retelling his story to friends, that he heard their footsteps as they ran straight past where he was hidden.


	9. Chapter Nine

Neville had made a decent space out of the Room of Requirement but had discovered, once his stomach reminded him that he needed food every once in a while, that this was the one thing the room didn’t offer. As he sat musing how to rectify this a picture frame on the wall seemed to have someone in it that was getting larger and larger as they moved towards him. He got up and went to have a closer look and as he approached he could see that it was a girl who then held out her hand and in doing so the portrait swung forward to reveal a tunnel.

At first he was a bit dubious about following the tunnel out of the room as he couldn’t be sure that this was a trick to catch him put in place by the Carrows, but the longer he stared at it trying to decide, the louder his stomach rumbled and in the end, that was the deciding factor. He was hungry, he had devised the room to be a hiding place that the Carrows could neither detect nor get into, therefore the tunnel had to be friendly. If the room couldn’t actually produce food, maybe this was its alternative – producing a means of getting to food without getting caught.

Neville climbed into the tunnel and started to walk down it. He lit his wand so as not to trip, but then extinguished it again in case he was heading towards danger. He wanted to be able to sneak away unnoticed if he ended up somewhere he really shouldn’t be. Discovering that the tunnel was leading him downwards, he used his hands against either side of the tunnel to help him keep steady and felt his way to the end. Before long he was approaching a rectangle of light which he could only assume was the exit at the other end. 

His ability to sneak up to it and sneak away if necessary was lost when he was nearly close enough to the doorway to stop and listen out for people the other side and it swung open of its own accord. 

Blinking in the sudden light Neville jumped when he heard a gruff voice say, “Well come in then, you’re letting all the heat out!”

It turned out that the tunnel led him into the living room of Aberforth Dumbledore, brother to the late headmaster, who gave him hot tea and shared his dinner with him. As they sat chatting about what had happened to Neville and what was happening at the school and in the wider wizarding world, Neville realised that this tunnel would be essential should the war against Voldemort come to a head at Hogwarts or Hogsmeade.

Finishing his dinner and gratefully accepting the box of food that Aberforth gave him to take back with him, Neville used their new and tentative friendship to strike up a deal with him and the use of the tunnel. When he got back to the room he found his galleon and sent a message out to all the DA members. The Army was going to regroup.

It wasn’t long before many of the students that had still been at Hogwarts when Neville had had to disappear started turning up in the Room of Requirement seeking a safe place to hide until they would be galvanized into action. They all fervently believed that Harry would be returning to Hogwarts and when he did they would be overturning the Death Eater hold and destroying Voldemort once and for all. 

When Harry did arrive, however, it was with great disappointment to all that he had not plotted any action for them to take. He seemed shifty and it made them suspicious as to what reason he had come back for. Especially when he told them that he would be leaving as soon as he had completed the task Dumbledore had set him.

Neville had contacted the other DA members and those of the Order that had galleons and there was a rush of people entering the Room of Requirement via Aberforth’s tunnel. As more and more people discovered that Harry was there but there was to be no revolution the clamour of confusion rose up and up.

 

***

Snape was pacing the corridors in his usual manner. No students were about to terrorize and he put this down to the Carrows’ punishments actually working when it came to keeping the little dunderheads in line. Not that he approved of using these dark methods in such a manner, but it was refreshing to walk the corridors and not have his thoughts interrupted by students skulking behind statues. He gasped slightly as his Dark Mark flared and suddenly the realisation that Potter had arrived at the school hit him.

“The fool!” He hissed to himself. 

He could tell, from the communication between Dark Mark’s, that it was Alecto that had alerted the Dark Lord to Potter’s presence. Changing his direction he quickly made his way towards the Ravenclaw common room to find her and Potter and to ensure that the boy wasn’t harmed. As he was walking there he the rustling of movement around the corner so took up a position behind one of the suits of armour. Unfortunately, as he had heard her, so Minerva had heard him. He gave up his impromptu hiding place to face her, searching the rest of the corridor behind her for signs of the boy.

Asking where the Carrows were seemed like the best course of action for him at this point. He had to find out where Potter was to be able to keep him safe now that the Dark Lord was on his way to the school. He also had to keep up his charade of Death Eater in front of Minerva because this was the only way that he could keep himself alive whilst Voldemort was still alive. Any inkling of him being a spy for the Order and having his allegiances to the other side and not actually to Voldemort would guarantee his long and painful death.

The duel that followed was not one that Snape wished to repeat under the same circumstances. He admired Minerva greatly as she was an excellent witch and would have delighted to accept a controlled duel under friendly circumstances had times been different. However, they weren’t, and for all his expertise he found himself struggling to duel her without hurting her and without being hurt himself. He ended up hiding behind the suit of armour again and when Professors Flitwick and Sprout turned up to join in the melee he turned tail and fled as soon as he could.

He was no coward, but he could see when a situation was not going his way and he still had to fulfil his task that Dumbledore had set him. Being dead would not help him to do that. Also not knowing where that dratted boy was wouldn’t help either. He ran to the nearest window, shattering the glass with a spell as he went, and then leapt out. The only thing he could do now was go to the Dark Lord’s side and see what action he decided to take. Once he ordered to attack, then Snape would be able to re-enter the castle on the pretence of attacking and find the boy then.

 

***

 

Voldemort took up residence in the Shrieking Shack when he arrived at Hogwarts to find that the students and Professors were rebelling and that they had captured the Carrows and Snape had fled. He was not happy that Snape had given up the school so easily and he had punished him for it before grouping his Death Eaters together and formulating his plan of attack.

He had no inclination to kill off the pure-blooded and had given an ultimatum to have Harry Potter handed over to him by midnight, as they had not done so he ordered the battle to begin. The Death Eaters and their allies – the giants they had persuaded to join them, the acromantula’s, the werewolves who had joined Fenrir’s pack and the Dementors had been ordered to fight. Lord Voldemort, however, stayed where he was with Nagini safe and sound beside him.

As the battle raged on within the school and grounds, Voldemort ordered Snape be found and brought to him. 

Watching him as he came into the room Voldemort said, “Severus, it is time for me to take the next step I am required to in order to defeat Harry Potter.”

The Dark Lord set Nagini free from her sphere of safety as he spoke to her in parseltongue to give the snake her instructions. It was time to take control of the Elder Wand.


	10. Chapter Ten

The snake bit down on his throat at the same time that he realised the Dark Lord meant what he was raving about and had instructed Nagini to bite to kill. As he fell to his knees he clutched one hand to his throat and with the other scrabbled at his robes whilst Lord Voldemort swept out of the room and the snake slithered after him. Unable to hold his body upright he fell to the floor, his face to the wall and his arm trapped under him. Blood spilled out from between his fingers as his eyes registered that the Boy Who Lived to be the Bane of his Life was crouched next to him frozen with shock at what he had seen and heard. He reached out and grabbed his robes attempting to get his attention, but the reason was lost when his memories started spilling out his mouth. The horror of the act that he had always been expecting and the unlikely fact that Lily’s son was knelt beside him had triggered a need in him. He had a burning urge to show him everything that he had done and the memories were pouring from his mouth as he tried to speak.

“Take them,” he croaked and saw that the boy had got a jar from somewhere and he was safely catching the memories inside it.

“Look at m….,” his voice faded to a whisper as his sight went black and he knew nothingness.

 

***

 

The next awareness he had was the thought that the boy had simply stared into his eyes. If any proof was needed that the child was an idiot that was it. He had not, in any way shape or form, been attempting to look his last into that brats eyes, whether they reminded him of Lily or not. He had been attempting to tell him to look at his hand. Had he managed to finish his sentence without the pain causing him to black out he would have said ‘Look at my hand’ in reference to the hand that had been clutching that dim-witted imbecilic dunderhead’s robes. Within which had been his vial of Nagini antidote. 

At that thought, his throat seared and burned and he coughed raspily and then jerked his head when cool, gentle fingers pressed against his forehead, causing the burn to worsen. The fingers pressed more firmly against his head, tilting his face upwards and he felt liquid being poured into his mouth making him splutter and choke. A voice murmured at him from afar and yet more cool, gentle fingers rubbed his throat up and down coaxing the liquid downwards at the same time as chasing the burning sensation away. He drifted back into the blackness as he wondered how fingers could have such a cooling effect.

Loud shouting bangs and the resounding noises of hexes bouncing off the hall walls helped to bring Snape back round again. This time there were no cool fingers on his forehead or potion at his lips to sooth the pain in his neck. He turned his head sideways towards the noise and was met by a front seat view of the Battle of Hogwarts. As spell after spell was flung between the fighting wizards and witches he could only watch helplessly as his fingers twitched, itching to be part of it and to be able to protect the fighters that were fighting to rid the world of the Dark Lord, but his condition rendered even constant watching impossible.

The Death Eaters still fighting slowly dwindled under the onslaught from the fighting Order members until there was only the Dark Lord left. Snape was drifting in and out of consciousness and only got snapshots of the action taking place. He saw Potter and Voldemort standing alone facing each other and thought they had finally got to the point that they had all been working towards. He passed out again before the duel started and when he came to the Dark Lord was no more. He couldn’t explain how he felt now that the Dark Lord was defeated and as he looked to one side his eyes locked with a pair of large brown eyes showing a mixture of joy and sadness in a depth that he could only wonder at before the pain overcame him again.

 

***

 

After the mingled feelings of Lord Voldemort being defeated, some had gathered together to mourn with each other over those that had died whilst others had galvanised into action to help with those that were injured. The severely injured were being transferred one by one to St Mungo’s and, having come to again, Snape was surprised to overhear Potter vehemently defending him and practically ordering Minerva and Madam Pomfrey to have him moved to the hospital at once. What he missed, as he faded back into unconsciousness, was Harry explaining to Professor McGonnagal the truth about Severus Snape and his true involvement in the war effort on the side of the Light and Minerva’s contrite expression as she thought back over how she had treated him for the last few years.

He was taken straight to the Dai Llewellyn ward for serious bites which was on the first floor. The floor specialised in creature-induced injuries and they seemed to have been getting a lot of practice with snake bites these past couple of years. Healer Smethwyck had begun barking orders from the moment he was brought in. The Healers had then set to it with a gusto not often seen in that ward because it was unusual for so many creature induced injuries and there were all sorts of injured witches and wizards being brought in as they worked. The werewolves had certainly made their mark. But, then, the amount of injured people that were being brought into St Mungo’s in total was not usually seen and speed was of the essence to enable some of the Healers to move on to the next patient. The war had been kind to no-one.

They had trainees scurrying to and fro with bandages and bottles and the other implements that Smethwyck was shouting for as he bent low over Snape’s prone body, waving his wand in an intricate fashion close to his neck. The bite from the snake had been closed but he had lost a lot of blood beforehand and they needed to ascertain what damage the venom had done. They were no closer to making him stable. What looked like blood replenishing potions and a strengthening solution were coaxed down his throat, but not before his body convulsed horribly.

Harry had not been able to get him to the Healers in enough time. His organs were deteriorating and the delay in treatment had caused him to have a stroke. Healer Smethwyck was able to stabilize his heart and other internal organs with more frantic wand-waving. Next a potion that was grey in colour had also been forced down his throat. (Later, when he was better, Snape discovered that he had been given a specialty potion of which the main ingredient was ground bezoar to help with the healing process, which was appropriate considering the injury). His body had outwardly relaxed and one of the trainee Healers had settled him more comfortably onto the bed pulling the covers over him advising Minerva, who had stayed until she was sure that he was stable so that she could report back to Harry, that now all they could do was wait.

 

***

 

Hermione had found herself unable to stay away from St Mungo’s for long. When she had gone, after the battle, to be healed she had made it her business to find out where Professor Snape was following the report that they had received from Professor McGonnagal on her return to the school. As soon as they had declared her fit enough to be allowed to leave she had gone to visit him. From then on she had visited him every day. Not out of pity and not out of guilt. The exact reason why she was drawn to him every day was beyond her current comprehension, but she couldn’t just leave him there alone, even though the Healer had advised her that they were keeping him asleep until his diagnostics improved. 

Daily visits to a sleeping Snape had turned into daily visits of her reading the latest potions articles and other published works on academic subjects. She tried to convince herself that she was reading them for her own improvement and that she was reading them out loud to stop the room from being so silent. When Snape had come to she had continued to visit and continued to read to him from the publications, extending it to new books that were released and new theories that were being argued over. He had been unable to speak to begin with and she had not known whether he had wanted her there or not, but there was that thing that kept making her come back so she had refused to allow his glares to push her away.

Shaking herself out of her reverie, she approached the desk situated in front of the doors to the ward and asked the nurse how he was doing. 

“Oh, hello my dear,” the nurse said kindly, “I think you will be most pleased with his progress today, we have managed to get his voice working again. It is a little scratchy and, I am sure, still very painful, but it is extremely good progress!”

Thanking the nurse for her heads up, Hermione moved away from the desk and towards the door to the ward. As she entered she saw Snape sat upright in his bed, his black pyjama top buttoned right to the top and arms folded across his chest as he stared out of the window. The noise of the door as she entered made him turn around and, to her surprise the look on his face was not one of complete hostility. 

“Tell me,” he said in a scratchy whisper as she approached his bedside, “how did I end up here?”

“Minerva brought you here,” replied Hermione matter-of-factly as she sat down in the armchair beside his bed.

“That was not what I meant.” He shifted in his bed in irritation. “After the Dark Lord set Nagini on me I was unable to take my antidote.” Breathing raspily he paused before continuing, “I blacked out whilst trying to tell Potter to administer it.”

“Oh, well, that’s simple!” Hermione responded smiling at him. “I administered it to you.”

He stared at her as she smiled at him. He couldn’t help but find that smile fascinating. It reached her large brown eyes and seemed to add flecks to them that he had not seen in any other eyes before. They made him want to smile back.


End file.
